The present invention relates generally, as indicated, to molded cable termination assemblies and, more particularly, to such assemblies that terminate woven or previously relatively unbondable types of cables.
Woven cables which are, of course, well known are particularly used for high speed signal transmission purposes. Such cables may be formed of one or more conductors within a woven nylon or other fiber dielectric material. Usually there are a plurality of such linearly spaced-apart conductors within the dielectric material with the over-all cable having a ribbon-like appearance, for example. These woven ribbon cables are relatively flexible to facilitate their usage in tightly packed areas.
In the past the common way to terminate one or more conductors of an electrical cable was to attach a cable termination device thereto. A cable termination device includes a plurality of electrical contacts individually connected to respective conductors of the cable and a housing mechanically holding the contacts and the conductors in a relatively fixed relation with the contacts also having an exposed area for electrical connection to an external device, such as another such termination, a socket on a computer terminal or the like. The assembled cable termination device and electrical cable are commonly referred to as a cable termination assembly.
In co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 656,303, filed Feb. 9, 1976, for "Jumper Connector", now U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,799, which patent is assigned to the same assignee as the present application, a molded cable termination assembly is disclosed. In such assembly the supportive body or housing base of the cable termination device is actually molded directly about part of the contacts and cable to form an integral cable termination assembly. The advantages of such a molded cable termination assembly are described in such application.
In the past some cable termination assemblies for woven cables had the conductors of such cable attached to respective contacts and portions of the contacts and of the cable were potted. Typically, those contact and cable portion would be placed in a plastic housing or in a mold and the housing or mold would be filled with a potting material which would cure to a solid body holding those cable and contact portions in fixed spatial relation. A problem encountered during the potting procedure has been wicking of the relatively fluent uncured potting material along the woven cable beyond the entry point of the latter into the housing or mold because the woven insulation will not form a good seal directly with the relatively unflexible walls of the mold. After the wicked potting material in the cable outside the housing or mold had cured within and/or about the woven dielectric material, that material would become relatively brittle. As a result, a relatively slight flexing of the exposed brittle cable portion may cause the cable to break or to wear out prematurely. Alternatively, such flexing may cause failure of one or more of the conductor-contact connections within the potted body.
Moreover, in the past, the molding of a cable termination assembly to a cable comprised of conductors in a Teflon or like relatively non-bondable or non-wetting insulation material has been difficult and often impossible.